Racism Report 2003 - Zara

Racism Report 2003 Cases: Media Page 19In any case, nobody has brought up the subject with me personally. However, please also allow me to express myastonishment that in view of the fact that for many years I have been a campaigner and through many appearanceseven a kind of mascot for another fringe group, i.e. for homosexuals and lesbians. (...) In addition you should alsonot overlook the fact that I have lived with my husband for 30 years, who has paid for his advocacy for minorities inour country with his health and furthermore created an exemplary beneficial institution in Vienna - the IntegrationFund of the City of Vienna (see enclosure). (...) So that there is no misunderstanding: I welcome and admire yourwork but I do not think much of excessive generalisation and labelling a mistake as discrimination on the principleof insinuation.“ZARA sent a letter of thanks for the reply: „(...) We would like to comment on some points in your letter whichappear to us to be particularly important: with our letter of complaint we want to draw attention to the fact thatthe word „Nigger“ is pejorative. Even if many people do not know the meaning of the word and still use it todayinnocently, it is still an offensive term for people with dark skin colour, Africans/Afro-Americans/Afro-Austrians. Ofcourse a quiz programme is a stress situation and we can also follow your line of argument that you were in factaiming to distinguish between „white“ and „black“ Africans. However, this does not change the fact that the term„Nigger“ is discriminatory for „black“ Africans. (...) I would like to emphasise once again that we are not accusing youof targeted xenophobia. However, especially because of your commitment and model role, the terms which you usein the media carry even more weight and for this reason we would like to ask you to be particularly sensitive aboutsuch expressions and to abstain from using the term „Nigger“. (...).ZARA received a letter of reply from the ORF General Directorate (Michael Battisti): „(...) I totally agree with theambition of your letter and it was, and is, in no way the intention of the ORF to discredit viewers - regardless oftheir origin. We also do not want to accuse Dagmar Koller of xenophobia. To our mind the use of the term „Nigger“by Ms. Koller was in no way pejorative, which is why the presenter, Armin Assinger, let the statement go by withoutcomment. Should ORF viewers feel insulted by this remark, I very much regret it (...).“ZARA passed the answers on to the witnesses for their information.should think about what happens when they get married to foreigners.“ This statement by a private„GirlsZivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeitdetective in the ORF programme „Thema“ on Monday, 15 September 2003 was reported to ZARA by a client. Thereport was about a child kidnapping by a Croat who was married to an Austrian. Since no further comment was madeor question raised about this statement in the programme, ZARA wrote to the person responsible for the programme,Johannes Fischer, the ORF Viewers‘ and Listeners‘ Council and the private detective involved.Answers were received from all three. The ORF Viewers‘ and Listeners‘ Council, instead of commenting, merely askedcounter-questions about how ZARA was financed and added a brief treatise on the difference between racism andxenophobia. The ZARA letter of complaint was submitted to the Complaints Commission of the Viewers‘ and Listeners‘Council: „Some members remarked that without your explicit indication of the sentence you regard as incriminating,they would in all probability not have perceived it in the way you describe while watching the report. However, dueto your complaint an intensive discussion developed about howMr. Guggenbichler‘s statement should be judged. Interpretationranged from „according to experience here is meant internationalmarriages“ to „very certainly xenophobic“. The view was alsoexpressed that the portrayal of what was happening would nothave suffered if this sentence had been left out. The problemwhich you have addressed has therefore been made a centraltheme and discussed in detail with those responsible for theprogramme - we think, completely as you would have wished.However, the members were unanimously of the opinion thatthe programme makers cannot be accused of culpable incorrectbehaviour.“Reply by the private detective7326 October 2003 at 15:50 on ORF 2 the film „Mein Freund, der Lipizzaner“ („My Friend the Lipizzaner“)OnZivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeit(1994, Dir. Franz Antel) was shown. Two clients complained independently of each other about a racist statementmade in the film which is obviously meant as a (bad) joke and is not further questioned or commented upon by oneof the other characters. The positively cast hero of the film, played by Sascha Wussow (A) is talking to a stable boy(B) just after a Lipizzaner has been born which is still black.A: „Unbelievable, in 7 years it‘ll be white and won‘t have a single black hair anymore.“B: „If it was like that with the blacks in Africa there‘d be fewer problems in the world.“ZARA wrote two letters of complaint to the ORF (General Directorate and Viewers‘ and Listeners‘ Council). Theformer assured us that the film would no longer be shown in this form and suggested that ZARA should contact the74